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Constructed Wetlands Wastewater Treatment Lagoons Pueblo of Zuni Mckinley County, NEW MEXICO

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Constructed Wetlands Wastewater Treatment Lagoons Pueblo of Zuni Mckinley County, NEW MEXICO ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT for the SECTION 595 WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ACT Constructed Wetlands Wastewater Treatment Lagoons Pueblo of Zuni McKinley County, NEW MEXICO Prepared by U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS ALBUQUERQUE DISTRICT 4101 Jefferson Plaza NE Albuquerque, New Mexico 87109 July 2008 Finding of No Significant Impact Constructed Wetlands Wastewater Treatment Lagoons Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), Albuquerque District, in cooperation with and at the request of the Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico, is planning a project to increase the capacity of their secondary wastewater treatment wetlands. The construction work is authorized under Section 595 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1999 (Public Law 106-53; 33 U.S.C. 2201 et seq.), as amended. The Act authorizes the Corps to provide assistance for design and construction for water-related environmental infrastructure and resource protection and development projects in Idaho, Montana, rural Nevada, New Mexico, and rural Utah. The Pueblo of Zuni is the local sponsor. The proposed construction period for the first two wetland cells is nine months, and is expected to start in September 2008. The proposed action involves the construction of 10 secondary treatment wetland cells within a 200-acre fenced area on Pueblo of Zuni land. The overall wetland system was designed to contain a total of 12 wetland cells at this site. Two of the 12 wetland cells already have been constructed. The proposed action would complete the system by adding 10 cells. Of these 10 cells, two cells would be constructed initially, followed by 8 additional cells as funding becomes available. The two wetland cells proposed for initial construction in 2008 would be located immediately northwest of the two existing wetland cells that were completed in 2001. These initial two cells would provide the greatest capacity for wastewater treatment given the available budget. The completion of the ten additional wetland cells would provide the Pueblo with wastewater treatment capacity sufficient for effluent disposal given the current population and conditions while addressing existing deficiencies. The entire Pueblo of Zuni would benefit from the proposed expansion of the secondary treatment wetlands. Cultural resources surveys of the project area were conducted in 1999 and 2000, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was the lead Federal agency for this project. Archaeological and traditional cultural properties reports were prepared by Zuni Cultural Resources Enterprise (ZCRE) and reviewed by the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO). Of the 10 archaeological sites that were recorded, nine are eligible to the National Register of Historic Places under criterion “d”. The strategy proposed by ZCRE was to avoid impacts to the sites through a combination of restricting construction in certain locations, fencing, and monitoring during construction. The recommendations in the report were concurred with by SHPO. The Corps would adhere to the recommendations in the ZCRE report; therefore, the Corps has determined that there would be "No Historic Properties Affected" by construction of the project. The potential environmental effects of the proposed action are minimal compared to the No-Action alternative, with the difference being that the No-Action alternative does not provide sufficient capacity to accommodate existing wastewater flows. The deficiency of the existing system forces incompletely treated effluent to be discharged on land near the Zuni River. By eliminating discharge of incompletely treated effluent on land near the Zuni River, the proposed action has a net environmental benefit. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background and Location 1 1.2 Purpose and Need 1 1.3 Regulatory Compliance 6 2.0 PROPOSED ACTION AND ALTERNATIVES 6 2.1 Proposed Action 6 2.2 Alternatives Considered 7 2.3 Future without project (No-Action) 7 3.0 EXISTING ENVIRONMENT AND FORESEEABLE EFFECTS 8 3.1 Physiography, Geology, and Soils 8 3.2 Climate 8 3.3 Water Quality 9 3.4 Floodplains and Wetlands 9 3.5 Air Quality, Noise, and Aesthetics 10 3.6 Vegetation Communities 11 3.7 Wildlife 11 3.8 Special Status Species 12 3.9 Cultural Resources 15 3.10 Land Use and Socioeconomic Considerations 17 3.11 Indian Trust Assets 18 3.12 Human Health and Safety 18 3.13 Environmental Justice 18 3.14 Noxious Weeds and Invasive Species 19 3.15 Cumulative Impacts 19 4.0 CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 20 5.0 PREPARATION, CONSULTATION AND COORDINATION 20 5.1 Preparation 20 5.2 Quality Control 21 5.3 General Consultation and Coordination 21 5.4 Public Review Comments and Corps’ Responses 22 6.0 REFERENCES CITED 24 APPENDICES Appendix A Cultural Resources Coordination Appendix B Biological Resources Coordination Appendix C Public Review Letters Appendix D Zuni Pueblo Wetland Project Plans iii TABLE OF CONTENTS (Cont.) Page LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Vicinity Maps of Proposed Project Area for the Wastewater 3 Collection System Improvement, Pueblo of Zuni, McKinley County, New Mexico. Figure 2. Location of Proposed Secondary Treatment Lagoons, 4 Pueblo of Zuni, McKinley County, New Mexico. Figure 3. Site Visit Photo of Proposed Project Area Looking North 5 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Federal and State of New Mexico Special Status Species 13 with Potential to Occur in the Vicinity of the Proposed Project Table 2 Rare, Threatened and Endangered Plant Species 15 Listed for McKinley County, NM iv 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background and Location The United States Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), Albuquerque District, in cooperation with and at the request of the Pueblo of Zuni, is planning to construct ten wetland/evaporation cells for secondary and tertiary wastewater treatment. The proposed cells are needed to increase the capacity of the wetlands wastewater treatment system to a design capacity of 12 cells (two cells currently exist). The work would be conducted under Section 595 of the Water Resources Act of 1999 (Public Law 106-53) as amended. The Act authorizes the Corps to provide assistance in the form of design and construction for water-related environmental infrastructure, resource protection, and development projects in Idaho, Montana, rural Nevada, New Mexico, and rural Utah. Types of projects included under the Act are: wastewater treatment and related facilities, stormwater retention and remediation, surface water resource protection and development, and sewer and water line replacement. Provisions under the Act require that the project be publicly owned to receive Federal assistance. As such, the non-Federal sponsor for the proposed project is the Pueblo of Zuni. The Act further requires that a cooperative agreement be established between the Federal and non- Federal interests. In general, the Federal share of project costs under each cooperative agreement is 75 percent of the total project cost. The proposed project area is located within the Pueblo of Zuni lands, McKinley County, New Mexico (see Figures 1 and 2). The site is south of the Zuni River and north of Ojo Caliente Road, approximately 2.5 miles southwest of the Pueblo of Zuni Village. The 200-acre site is currently an open field with upland vegetation and two constructed wetland cells (see Figure 3). The proposed construction period for the first two new cells is nine months and is expected to start in September 2008. The remaining 8 cells would be constructed as funding becomes available. The existing primary treatment facility consists of a lagoon system with a total surface area of 33.4 acres (“Existing Primary Treatment Lagoons” shown in Figure 2). This primary treatment system was constructed in 1969 and expanded in 1971 by the Indian Health Service. No significant improvements have been made to these lagoons since 1971. The Indian Health Service funded a project in 2004 for $424,000.00 to rehabilitate and provide improvements to this system. That project proposes to clean out accumulated sludge, rebuild broken berms, replace valves between cells, repair fencing, and conduct effluent quality monitoring. Preliminary work for sludge removal is anticipated this summer. A lift station was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), State of New Mexico and the Pueblo of Zuni. An Environmental Assessment and FONSI were completed August 20, 1998 (USEPA 1998). That project to pump effluent from the treatment lagoons to the wetlands was completed in June 2003. The 10-inch effluent line from the lift station to the wetlands was completed in 2001. The two existing constructed wetland cells were constructed by in-house personnel of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 2001. The Zuni Fish and Wildlife Department is presently operating and maintaining the two existing cells. In June 2005, a wastewater treatment study was completed for the Pueblo of Zuni. This study recommends that, in coordination with the Indian Health Service Project, the middle two primary treatment lagoons be deepened with aerators installed and serpentine channels with appropriate vegetation be constructed in the lower two cells. The upper two cells would be used as receiving and settlement cells with monitoring inlet devices. Sludge drying beds were recommended to be provided at approved sites for future sludge removal. Although not part of the current project, these recommendations would improve the quality of effluent entering the secondary/tertiary treatment wetlands. The 2005 report also recommends the continuation of construction of cells in the constructed wetlands to design capacity. 1.2 Purpose and Need The purpose of this project is to add ten additional constructed wastewater treatment cells to the Pueblo of Zuni secondary and tertiary treatment wetland area (“Zuni Wetlands Project Area” shown in Figure 2). The design of the wetlands is based on an ultimate system of twelve treatment cells total to provide enough evaporative capacity to prevent overflow. The first phase of this project will provide two cells in addition to two that were constructed previously, for a total of four.
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